Hemingway Adventure
Kalispell, Montana

I’m waiting at the airport for my transport to a dude ranch at Marion, fifty miles to the west, and wondering if living in these great open spaces doesn’t do something to the mind, when I hear the sound of a cow drawing up at the Arrivals area. For those who might not have heard a cow drawing up at an Arrivals area, I can only describe it as a long, defiant moo, ending on a strangely falsetto note. This may be because it doesn’t in fact emanate from a cow, but from a long black Lincoln limousine with a pair of horns on the front which is heading straight for me. I try to appear unconcerned, but the limousine moos again, more confidently this time, as if the damn thing has recognised me. And it has. A window slides down and a wide-brimmed black hat appears, and beneath it a woman’s head which enquires politely if I’m Michael Palin.
Which is how I get to meet Ellen, better half of Leo; together they run the Hargrave Guest and Cattle Ranch - my home for the next couple of days.
Ellen is around my age, I would think, with a merry twinkle in the eye and a line in Oklahoma!- style skirts, cotton blouses and high-heeled boots, which is not an affectation for she comes from a family of nine children brought up in rural Kansas. One of her sisters, a slim blonde called Mary-Beth, is visiting and has been roped in to drive the limousine and pull the moo control every now and then.
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PALIN'S GUIDES
- Series: Hemingway Adventure
- Chapter: Kalispell, Montana
- Country/sea: USA
- Place: Kalispell, Montana
- Book page no: 243
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RELATED LINKS
- USA
- Day 63
- Around the World in 80 Days
- Introduction
- Full Circle
- Day 64
- Around the World in 80 Days